Parable Wisdom: 3. Humbly Exalted
Luke 18:9-14
November 21, 2010
He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Do you have a favorite commercial? I do. And right now my favorite commercial is the one about the most Interesting man in the world. You know those commercials for Dos Equis beer? The main character in the commercials is an older man, surrounded by younger women, who is declared to be “the most interesting man in the world.” You see scenes from earlier in his life when he did amazing things. For example, in one scene an Eskimo is ice fishing, in the process of cutting out a hole in the ice. As he removes a circular cutaway of ice, out of the water emerges the most interesting man, holding three large fish. Then, in another scene you see the most interesting man halfway rapelling down a cliff on the side of a mountain, in order to nurse young eagle chicks with a dropper of milk. Then you see him lying in bed, suturing his own nasty wound, while smiling and carrying on a conversation with women and the doctor. Then you see him sitting with a queen, with both laughing after he has played a prank on her. He is declared, “the most interesting man in the world, a man whose mother has a tattoo on her shoulder that says, ‘son.’”
I love those commercials so much that when I see them on television. I often call my wife in to watch. But I’ve been wondering this week: what if they created a commercial starring “the most humble man in the world?” Would anyone be interested? Who would watch? I don’t think many of us would, but I know that God would. And I suspect that God would call in all the angels, and say, “Hey, guys,… that commercial is on again! Come and see!”
What would the most humble man in the world be like? I know of a few, and they are unique and special. For example, I met John in Oregon two springs ago. The pastor I worked with as an associate pastor right after seminary, Jack Hodges, retired several years ago after a distinguished career, culminating in being the executive presbyter of Cascades Presbytery. He just didn’t have it in him to sit around, so he decided to become a part-time pastor of a dying, inner-city, Portland church. I think that when he got there they had about 30 members, and within two years he had grown it to about 48 members. John was a member of that church. Every Sunday morning he got up to make coffee for the members of the church. Jack introduced me and said, “Graham, this is John. He makes the best coffee in any church in the world. He is a great man.” John smiled as he heard Jack say this. As we walked away, Jack said to me, “John really is a wonderful man. He’s had a hard life, yet he is always cheerful, and always willing to do anything to help. It doesn’t matter how small the job is. He does everything with a smile. He gets up early every Sunday morning, and it’s important to him to come to church and make coffee for everyone. He takes really great pleasure in doing it.” John is one of the most humble men in the world.
Another “most humble man in the world” is Darold Holliday. Like John, Darold has not had an easy life. He barely knows his parents, two people where were far too busy living the lives of drug addicts on the streets of Pittsburgh to raise their child. Darold was sent to his grandparents, who loved him dearly. Yet his grandfather died when he was seven, and his grandmother when he was twelve. He then was raised by elderly neighbors. He was diagnosed with Type I diabetes as a child. The condition meant that he has had to take insulin injections most of his life. The combination of the disease and the insulin shots destroyed his pancreas and kidneys. He has had to have transplants for all of them. Eventually, the pancreas was rejected, and even now he is fights the rejection of his kidney. Despite his physical struggles, nothing has kept him from bearing fruit. On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday afternoons he volunteers with kindergartners and first-graders at Lemington Elementary School in Pittsburgh. On Tuesday and Thursday mornings he volunteers at the Arsenal Middle School. He also works with teens and youth in the afternoon recreation program sponsored by East End Cooperative Ministries. And he volunteers in the youth program of his own church, Good Shepherd Baptist Church. In addition, he is part of Ameri-Corps, the national volunteer agency. Despite all of his struggles, he has made serving God and caring for others a priority in his life. As a result, East End Cooperative Ministries (a conglomeration of over 45 Pittsburgh congregations that run a homeless shelter, programs to help the homeless reintegrate into life, tutoring programs for at-risk children, health clinics, and more) awarded him Volunteer of the Year in 2003. He is one of those “most humble men in the world.”
The fact is that these humble people don’t garner that much attention because humility as a virtue goes against so much of what we value in modern American life. Other virtues work better, virtues like faithfulness, generosity, and self-control. They work because they contribute to the American life of working hard, making money, and achieving success. Humility, gets the short shrift because it’s not a virtue that produces things we care about in our culture, where power, popularity, and wealth mean everything. Think about it. Nobody becomes popular or powerful by being humble. No one typically gains great wealth through being humble. No one garners great attention by being humble. But what you do gain is immeasurable from God’s perspective
The interesting thing about our passage is that it actually goes against the common beliefs about what saves us. If I were to quote Romans 3 and say that we are justified by ____ through ____, would you be able to fill in the blanks? Most Christians would be able, saying “by grace through faith.” According to our passage, it’s not grace or faith that leads to salvation but humility. To recognize it you have to understand that the words “justification,” “righteousness,” and “salvation are basically interchangeable. This parable tells us that the tax collector goes home justified, the tax collector goes home “saved.” And it’s humility that saves him.
So this morning I want to dig a bit deeper into what it means to be humble, and I want to make you work on thinking about how humble you are. I’m going to ask you to read the following quotes, and reflect on them. Ask the question, what do these teachings tell me about humility and how I can become more humble in my life.
From Thomas Kelly’s, A Testament of Devotion, we hear, “Humility does not rest, in final count, upon bafflement and discouragement and self-disgust at our shabby lives, a brow-beaten, dog-slinking attitude. It rests upon the disclosure of the consummate wonder of God, upon finding that only God counts, that all our own self-originated intentions are works of straw. And so in lowly humility we must stick close to the Root and count our own powers as nothing except that they are enslaved in His power.”
And from the 14th Century Roman Catholic writer, Thomas รก Kempis’ The Imitation of Christ, we hear, “Everyone naturally wishes to have knowledge, but what good is great learning unless it is accompanied by a feeling of deep awe and profound reverence toward God? Indeed, a humble farmer who serves God is better than a proud philosopher, who neglecting himself, contemplates the course of the heavens. The person who truly knows himself seems common in his own eyes...
“If you want to learn something that will really help you, learn to see yourself as God sees you and not as you see yourself in the distorted mirror of your own self-importance. This is the greatest and most useful lesson we can learn: to know ourselves for what we truly are, to admit freely our weaknesses and failings, and to hold a humble opinion of ourselves because of them. Not to dwell on ourselves and always to think well and highly of others is great wisdom and perfection.”
As we close, reflect on this simple question. What would you need to do to become humbler in your life?
Amen.
